NASCAR Silly Season and News

[tmatt65]

So, wouldn't surprise me if Larson's gone from Ganassi. 2 interesting things come out of this. What happens to Ross Chastain and the #6 if Ryan Newman isn't ready at the end of this break, and what happens to Larson long term? Honestly, if he can scrounge up some sponsorship from somewhere, I see Kyle doing something similar to Kurt Busch in the 2011-2014 timeframe and eventually ending up at Stewart-Haas (Tony has been trying to recruit him for a while now). But this has definitely put him in a hole short term. And it's unfortunate, I have liked Larson, he seems a good guy who said something that shouldn't ever be said by anyone, and because of the public eye he's in, he's now going to pay for it.

 

[Keselowski2Wallace]

HELLO Ross Chastain to the #42!

 

[Brandon Miller]

I seem to remember Jeremy Clements said the same thing and he's still racing.

 

[RacerXero84]

Can he come back from this? Certainly. A LOT of people in sports have done some incredibly effed up stuff and continue on (or at least get VERY quiet for some time... looks at Brett Favre lol)

Will it be in the #42 with CGR? Not freakin likely. Chip is 100% business, 'He Likes Winners'.... winning means making money. Money starts making for the door, he removes the reason for it wanting to leave.

GG Larson.... got fired on your day off. Impressive lol

 

[ayrwolf]

I seem to remember Jeremy Clements said the same thing and he's still racing.

Jeremy is racing for a family owned team Larson is not. Sponsors are multinational corporations who have their image to protect. Big difference

 

[mtblillie]

Chevy is also distancing itself from him now as well.

I have mixed feelings about this. My number 1 problem is the court of public opinion has become way too powerful when stuff like this happens. I know literally dozens of people of all colors who would say that in that manner and not mean for it to be racist. And yes, he is in the public eye and should not have said it, but frankly if we are going to expect people not to slip than we need to change the culture on a fundamental level. Right now half of Americans say it on a regular basis and act like it is no big deal and the other half of Americans act like you might as well have murdered one of their kids. I have been in all kinds of discussions where the majority of black people something like this is excusable or even funny and a large number of white people are freaking out about it. I honestly can't tell if they actually believe it is racist or if they are just trying very hard to prove they themselves aren't racist by making it a bigger deal than what it actually is.

Bottom line is he shouldn't have said it. NASCAR, CGR's and iRacing's response has been appropriate up to this point, albeit a little on the high side of the spectrum. He should have known that there was a chance he would say something that would get transmitted to the public, and that it would generate this type of response. But if you are going to stand on your high horse and condemn him for being racist you should probably have more to stand on than he said a bad word.

 

[RacerXero84]

Chevy is also distancing itself from him now as well.

I have mixed feelings about this. My number 1 problem is the court of public opinion has become way too powerful when stuff like this happens. I know literally dozens of people of all colors who would say that in that manner and not mean for it to be racist. And yes, he is in the public eye and should not have said it, but frankly if we are going to expect people not to slip than we need to change the culture on a fundamental level. Right now half of Americans say it on a regular basis and act like it is no big deal and the other half of Americans act like you might as well have murdered one of their kids. I have been in all kinds of discussions where the majority of black people something like this is excusable or even funny and a large number of white people are freaking out about it. I honestly can't tell if they actually believe it is racist or if they are just trying very hard to prove they themselves aren't racist by making it a bigger deal than what it actually is.

Bottom line is he shouldn't have said it. NASCAR, CGR's and iRacing's response has been appropriate up to this point, albeit a little on the high side of the spectrum. He should have known that there was a chance he would say something that would get transmitted to the public, and that it would generate this type of response. But if you are going to stand on your high horse and condemn him for being racist you should probably have more to stand on than he said a bad word.

I can get that (being probably the few that has never used the word since first uttering it when I was 6 or 7 and getting a 'from downtown' face slap from my mother), I'm somewhere between not caring and pearl clutching; I've grown to not like even hearing it (Jamaican Sergeant became like a 2nd father to me while I was in the Army), and really frown on people using it. We have a plethora of other words in various languages. Why do we cling to that one? Like you said, it'll probably take a hard cultural shift.

I think so far, the response has been proportional. I made my initial call on what will happen strictly based on previous observations of how the NASCAR business tends to work.

As always though, this much is true: freedom of speech doesn't equate to freedom from consequences from a business standpoint.

 

[RacerXero84]

Credit One has officially terminated sponsoring Larson now: EDIT: Note the wording. They are done sponsoring LARSON.

 

[nascarfan9]

Jeremy is racing for a family owned team Larson is not. Sponsors are multinational corporations who have their image to protect. Big difference

Adding to this, Clement's comments weren't clear as day on a live stream with thousands of people listening either...

 

[Brandon Thornton]

Credit One has officially terminated sponsoring Larson now: EDIT: Note the wording. They are done sponsoring LARSON.

View attachment 136282

Welcome to the #42 Ross Chastain...

EDIT: They're still sponsoring CGR, just not Larson. Which means he's definitely gone now.

 

[CCM284]

Larson really screwed up BIG time. Just goes to show that one little slip up can ruin your entire career. Honestly, I think the best move for CGR is to let Larson go in order to minimize damage to the organization as a whole.

 

[sweetracerdude]

 

[CCM284]

McDonald's has terminated it's relationship with Larson.
https://twitter.com/A_S12/status/1249811720819933185

Edit: @thedude1987 beat me to it lol

 

[KodaTheWolf]

McDonald's has officially terminated their relationship with Larson. No way Chip is keeping Larson at this point

 

[sweetracerdude]

my 2 cents on this..... this is more of a blemish to NASCAR as they haven been trying to keep "racism" out. A lot has been floated with Bubba being the only black driver in the sport or very limited ethnic drivers in the sport. While I do believe he is sorry and didnt mean it, I still think you need to pay the piper for what you do. Having a driver "publicly" say this didnt help him

 

[sweetracerdude]

Interesting scenario here....

 

[KodaTheWolf]

I've seen so many people today, who you can clearly tell don't pay attention to the sport, just say the stereotypical, "A racist in NASCAR? Shocking." & just grouping everyone as racists because of this. It's unbelievably frustrating knowing people still & will continue to think of the sport as this because of what Larson said

 

[KodaTheWolf]

Interesting scenario here....
View attachment 136285

Ross:

 

[MattyO]

GG Larson.... got fired on your day off. Impressive lol

 

[Swagger Racing 26]

they have atleast DC Sol ohhh wait...